Page 10 - ELG1710 Oct Issue 451

RESEARCH NEWS .
NEWS
NEWS
By Claudia Civinni FOREIGN LANGUAGE
to keep the study environment as Teacher’s pet
Very young children can acquire a consistent as possible,’ Dr Ferjan
foreign language faster with trained Ramirez said. But how much QUASHES ETHICAL
native speakers using ‘parentese’ accent is too much for children at
in a highly social context, a study this age? Dr Ferjan Ramirez said QUALMS All teachers, or at least the most
suggests. that further research is needed, dedicated ones, can take credit for
The research is the latest in a series but she recommends that parents many things: developing students’ potential,
of studies looking at how small speak to their children in their By Claudia Civinini or in their native language. shaping the future generation, making the
children learn by picking up the native language, as long as this is Would you kill a person to save Over six experiments, they found world a better place. Getting the Beatles to
separate sounds of language. The the language in which they are another five? that participants in the native insert lyrics in their albums, though, is a claim
findings also raise hope that all the most fluent and feel at ease. Answering moral dilemmas is no language conditions responded
infants, regardless of socioeconomic ‘Speaking a language in which easy feat but imagine having to do more ethically than those in the that only one teacher in the world could make,
status, can acquire a language given parents are comfortable allows it in your foreign language. How foreign language conditions. it emerged recently. Juan Carrión – who died
the right conditions. them to have the best and most would this affect your decision? The effect was least pronounced last month at the age of 93 – was an avant-
‘Our study has direct implications natural interactions with their Studies have found that when the question format garde English teacher in 1966 Spain. He used to
for designing programmes for kids children’. There are studies, she bilinguals are more likely to choose explicitly stated the consequences transcribe the lyrics of Beatles’ songs and then
who need to learn English’, co- explained, that show that speaking a utilitarian answer in their L2 of the actions (for example, use them in his classes. When he heard that
author Naja Ferjan Ramirez told English to your children even if you than in their L1 – maximising net ‘would you push one man over John Lennon was in Spain shooting How I Won
the Gazette. ‘We are very excited have an accent and are not fluent benefit over the ethics of causing the bridge to save five lives,
from that perspective’. does not necessarily benefit the harm. even though the man will die?) the War, Juan didn’t let Lennon’s fame deter
For a period of eighteen weeks, child’s English development, but But why is this? Could it be Interestingly, utilitarianism scores him. He reached the location of the shooting,
the study compared the progress can slows down the development of because a foreign language slows – how likely participants were to befriended a bodyguard and quickly got Lennon
in Spanish and English of two the other language. down your thinking process and approve of harmful actions when to correct the lyrics he had
groups of children (from 7 to 33 ‘The situation may be different allows you to consider the greater they maximise net welfare, and transcribed. After that
months old) in an infant bilingual for older children who already good? It turns out this happens disapprove when they don’t – was meeting, all Beatles’ albums
programme in Madrid, Spain. Infant-directed speech helps have a first language and can use not because foreign language users also lower for participants in the released had lyrics, and the
The control group followed the language learning it as a base to scaffold their second think more, but because they ‘feel foreign language conditions.
centre’s usual English language language learning, but in this case less’, the authors of a new study Beyond blunting the emotional rest is history. Juan’s story
development programme, which the learning process is different’. said. This means using a foreign response to prohibited actions such was made into the award-
included two hours of weekly Could native However, she adds, ‘this study was language dampens the emotional as murder, the foreign language winning 2013 movie, Living
instruction with a bilingual not designed to test how crucial the response to the violation of an effect also showed a decrease in Is Easy with Eyes Closed.
teacher. The experimental group use of native speech is.’ ethical rule. US researchers utilitarian reasoning.
experienced hour-long daily speakers and ‘We did not set out to answer randomly assigned bilingual The authors say this result may
sessions with a native speaker tutor, that question in this initial study, participants to conditions where hint at the cognitive difficulty of
where the focus was on developing and there were other factors at play, they would be presented with moral using a foreign language, especially Naughty corner
a highly social and interactive ‘parentese’ be such as parentese, that were not dilemmas in their foreign language if proficiency is not optimal.
learning context. Tutors involved equal between the two groups’.
children in games and addressed Another factor was social
them using parentese, infant- key to infant interaction. In a previous study LATE BILINGUALS ENJOY
directed speech with higher pitch by the same team, 9-month-old The quest
and slower tempo. Tutors were babies were exposed to twelve BRAIN ADVANTAGE for authentic material
undergraduates or recent graduates foreign language? sessions of Mandarin Chinese. took a bizarre twist in
from the University of Washington One group was taught by a tutor, Finland, where it was
who underwent a two-week while the second group received found that excerpts from
training period. the same input through television By Claudia Civinini the case of late bilinguals, the L2 the controversial website
By the end of the eighteen weeks, Findings of the latest study of and the third through radio. After We all know that adults, unlike acts as ‘in a parasitic capacity’ to
the intervention group scored ‘phonemic learning’ in infants could the intervention, the babies in the those lucky babies of the opposite the L1, and switching from one to Breitbart had been used
significantly higher in English. radio and television group were page, have a hard time learning a the other, a task operated by the in an English exam. It turns out the country
From a baseline of 12 English fuel the native-speaker debate just as good as the baseline group new language. But precisely because executive control network, requires asked its secondary school students to prove
vocalisations recorded per hour who didn’t receive any input. The of this, late bilinguals enjoy even more effort. But this effort ‘trains’ their understanding of English on texts that
for both groups, the control group The results showed this was entirely unfolds similarily to the learning of other group could discriminate more cognitive benefits than early the brain and makes it able to switch leave even the most seasoned of fact-checkers
averaged at 13 after six weeks, independent of the children’s your first language: it starts with Chinese sounds in the same way as bilinguals, a new study has found. tasks more quickly. baffled. Breitbart has been accused of peddling
while the experimental group socio-economic background. individual sounds, then it goes to babies growing up in China. But It is already known that people ‘The extra effort required on the ‘fake news’ and far-right material. ‘Perhaps
jumped to 74. The complexity of When asked why the study syllables, then words. The study when does this ‘unique window of who become bilingual as children part of the cognitive system involved
the language used by the children employed native-speaker tutors, also reports that parentese from late opportunity for language learning’ are quicker at switching from one translates into an extra gain’, said it was the linguistic features of the material
of the experimental group also Dr Ferjan Ramirez said: ‘We are bilinguals can be more inconsistent close? ‘We don’t have an answer’, task to another than monolinguals. Dr Connolly. The study used a […] that led to the decision’, the examination
increased: their phrases lengthened looking at very young children, across phonetic contexts than said Dr Ferjan Ramirez. But those who become bilingual as computer-based task that required board acting director told the Yle website. To
from 2.2 words to 2.8, whereas the and there is quite a bit of research parentese of native speakers – and ‘The critical period for adults are even quicker, the research participants to switch between two be fair, Breitbart’s language does have many
control group stayed at 2.2. In the showing that children at this babies pick up on those differences. language learning is a well- has revealed. tasks, each requiring their own set unique features – but one would question their
meantime, both groups developed age are very sensitive and detect In this study, this was also a way known phenomenon and it has The author of the study, Dr of rules. The Switch Cost, the time educational value. The Association of Teachers
their first language, Spanish, at the subtle phonetic differences of keeping all conditions equal been studied for years. In terms Anne-Marie Connolly, director of taken to disengage from one set of of English in Finland, however, ‘doesn’t see
the same rate. Re-tested eighteen between native and non-native by exposing children to just one of learning about the sounds of studies at Everest Language School rules and engage with the other set,
weeks later, the experimental group speakers.’ Learning a second variety of English . ‘It was only an language, it really is the very early in Dublin, said: ‘There is ample was lower for late bilinguals. the problem’, Yle reports, as the texts in
still retained what they had learnt. language at this age, she explained, initial exploration, and we wanted infancy’. evidence to suggest that within the Dr Connolly said that this question were ‘apolitical’. The Matriculation
bilingual mind the two languages bilingual advantage had been Examination Board said it was ‘not very
are not separate. The early exposure observed when bilinguals have a familiar’ with Breitbart’s reputation. We may
to two languages facilitates the reasonably high level of proficiency not be familiar with the ‘apolitical Breitbart’
bilingual ability to keep both in their L2, and they use it daily or either, we are afraid.
languages separate’. However, in almost daily.
10 October 2017 editorial@elgazette.com 11